His pitching staff had just been torched for 29 runs in two days when the first-place Yankees slugged their way to 17-13 and 12-8 victories to drop the reigning World Series champion Red Sox 11 games back in the AL East.

What went wrong for Boston?

Cora’s response was bizarre after he began with one sentence of praise for the Yankees improving from 2018 to 2019.

Disclaimer: These two Puerto Ricans are buddies, former Mets teammates and were together again on the Astros’ now-infamous 2017 championship team, Cora as Houston’s bench coach and Beltran as a part-time player in his final season of a possible Hall of Fame career.

Friends or not, this was an odd time to throw some credit to Beltran, who accompanied the Yankees to London but rarely was around the team throughout the 2019 season.

Here’s what Cora said that day while answering that question about the Yankees feasting on Boston’s pitching:

“I was joking with somebody that their biggest free-agent acquisition is Carlos Beltran. I know how he works. He’s helped them a lot. They’re very into details, and we have to clean our details. It was eye-opening, the last two days, from top to bottom.

“I’m not saying devices, all that stuff. It’s just stuff that the game will dictate. And we’ll scream at people, and it’s right there."

Here’s video of the Alex Cora soundbite we just played on @WFANmornings. This was following the Yankees’ sweep of Boston in the 2019 London Series. Check out the wink after he brings up Carlos Beltran’s name around :27 and unprovoked usage of the word “devices.” (h/t @Pacmangrig) pic.twitter.com/HgkglIoB7O

It was a weird answer at the time, and even more now that we know Beltran and Cora reportedly were masterminds of the Astros’ cheating, according to the report commissioner Rob Manfred’s released on Monday.

And if you read the report, which included severe punishment to the Astros, you probably know the only Houston player mentioned by name was Beltran, who was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1.

Beltran apparently will not be punished, but the Red Sox are being investigated and Cora probably will get worse punishment than what Manfred gave to Houston manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow, both receiving one-year suspensions from MLB and then a quick firing from Astros owner Jim Crane.

Cora already is out in Boston, and it’s a sure thing that he’ll serving a suspension in 2020 and maybe beyond if Manfred decides on a lifetime ban with perhaps an opportunity to be reinstated sometime in the future.

Regardless, looking back at Cora’s news conference in London, you have to wonder if he was dropping hints that he believed Beltran was helping the Yankees steal signs to acquire an edge that Cora suspected was a reason Boston’s pitching was so poor overseas.

“I was watching it at the time, and I was saying, ‘Something funny is going on here. What is he saying?'” MLB Network insider John Harper said on MLB Now. “We knew Beltran had a reputation about being a guy who could pick up pitch tipping and things like that, but the way that he’s saying it …”

Was Cora sending Beltran a secret message that was meant to suggest the 2019 Yankees were doing the same illegal things that the 2017 Astros did?

“When you see that (post-game interview), it takes me back to the steroids era to the guys that were using,” MLB Network analyst Dan Plesac said. “I don’t think if you’re a player or if you’re Alex Cora or Carlos Beltran or if you’re involved in this, you’re not thinking you’re ever going to get caught until it really happens.